Century-old letters have emerged to fill another chapter in the remarkable story of Angus’s own war horse.
They were penned by Captain Alexander Wallace, charting the First World War service of his chestnut mare, Vic.
Captain Wallace’s father was an Arbroath vet and hand-picked the mount that would become inseparable from his son on the fields of France and Flanders.
It proved a sound professional judgement – of more than 130 horses from the Royal Field Artillery’s Angus battery, Vic was the only one to return from war.
And her decorated owner rewarded the mare’s service by buying her at auction in London so she could return home to live out her days in the familiar surroundings of the farm she left in August 1914.
Animals at War exhibition
The story of Captain Wallace and Vic is a centrepiece of the Animals at War exhibition at Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre.
It was unearthed during lockdown by husband and wife researchers Sian and Michael Brewis.
Sadly Michael passed away just after the story came to light. But he was able to see Captain Wallace’s tunic and medals return to Angus after US descendants gifted them to the museum in 2021.
And the officer’s grandson recently visited Montrose to view them on display.
Captain Wallace emigrated to America after his return from action.
But the diary of his time with Vic has now also found its way to the collection at the historic air base.
The letters sent by the officer have been loaned to the centre by the McGregor family from Mains of Rossie, just outside Montrose.
It was the farm on the county’s fertile coast that Vic left and then safely returned to.
Record of war
Sian said: “These were written by Alexander Wallace to Mr McGregor and are a hand-written record of Vic’s war.”
The pages list every battle the pair fought in together, place names written into global history including Passchendaele, Arras and the Somme.
“It is a true indication of how much he valued Vic that he took the time to write down everything they had come through to hand on to the McGregor family so that they too knew,” said Sian.
They reveal the mare survived having pneumonia for two months before even being sent to France.
And also an intriguing final entry of the pair’s final time together away from the ear-splitting noise of guns and stench of death in the trenches.
Sian added: “Between arriving in Arbroath on May 11 1919 and taking Vic back to her old home, eight days elapsed.
“We don’t know what Alexander and Vic did during this time.
“But I would like to think that he took a last few days enjoying riding in open country instead of the battlefields of France and Belgium with the horse who had been with him throughout five years of war.
“It is quite incredible to think we now have connections with both the families involved in this story – the grandchildren of Alexander Wallace and the great-grandchildren of Mr McGregor, the farmer,” said Sian
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